TV Show’s Web Site Places Viewers at Scene of the Crime

Television’s unsolved crime shows are as much about capturing ratings as they are about capturing criminals, and the latest entry in the genre is trying to accomplish both with a little help from the Internet.

A new show called “Cold Case” is set to air on CBS next month, and will feature segments about unsolved homicides around the country. But one of the ways the show is trying to differentiate itself from other shows is by offering information about crimes and soliciting clues through a World Wide Web site created by Epoch Networks of Irvine.

“This is the first true marriage of television broadcasting and the Internet,” said the show’s producer, Tim Johnson. Other companies, including Microsoft Corp. and NBC, may quibble with that claim, but Johnson’s Web site is compelling.

The site, which can be found at https://www.coldcase.com, features loads of gritty details about the crimes depicted on the television show. There are actual crime scene photos, transcripts of 911 calls, witness statements and even autopsy reports.

“Dr. Hamilton determined that the back wound was inflicted from distant range, probably a few yards,” says one autopsy report about the unsolved slaying of a hunter in Florida in 1993. “The head wound was close range, less than a few feet.”

There are even pictures of clues, such as a postcard sent to investigators of the Florida killing from an anonymous sender. The writer scribbled a complaint about killing defenseless animals, and then wrote: “What goes around comes around.”

Johnson said the material is culled from police files with the permission of investigators as well as families of the victims. The Web site invites viewers to e-mail investigators with information, clues or even theories.

“The proposition is that with the Internet and the television show, we will solve unsolvable cases,” Johnson said. The show is scheduled to air April 18 at 9 p.m.

Epoch Networks, a company that provides Internet equipment and software, designed the Web site.

“It’s a pretty graphic site, more for mature audiences,” said Jon Brovitz, a spokesman for Epoch.